Not That Day
by Ruby Casablanca
Summary: Bloom's fate is finally upon her and this time, there is no escaping death. Be part of her last moments with her daughter, Lilian, as she tries to fix her damaged life one last time. Please read and review.


Not That Day

I looked out over the balcony and onto the city square. It was well over midnight but the people of Sparks were alive with festivities and light. I could hear the sweet music even from up here, the sound of the trumpets blaring to a military march. They were welcoming home a hero, a hero who would have some strange woman beside him, forgetful of the one who was up waiting for him. He wouldn't remember though. He couldn't remember.

I let the cool summer's breeze run through my red hair, letting it sweep it up into curly knots and then letting it unfold itself into different shapes. It was like watching a masterpiece come to life. It was like living art running down my back and bare shoulders.

Then, I heard footsteps approaching me from behind. I took a deep breath, recognizing the familiar rhythm of these particular steps. I wasn't going to move this time. I was going to spend my remaining time however I pleased.

The footsteps came to a stop as they rounded the corner in front of my room. I heard muffled voices and the frantic steps of the maid running to get me. She seemed out of breath and I wondered why she was running in the first place.

"Your Majesty, your daughter requests an audience with you." the maid said as she kneeled to my feet.

"Rise and call her in. I was just about to get her myself."

"As you wish, milady." the maid bowed once more and ran back out to my room.

I heard the doors swing open letting in a huge gust of warm air. The dainty little footsteps I heard before returned and I heard them come closer and closer until they stopped short, just behind me. I sighed. Obviously things hadn't changed.

"Mother?" she asked politely.

"Yes my dear?" I replied tiredly.

"May I speak with you?"

"Of course. Come closer to me and enjoy this fresh air." I called her over to me and she reluctantly complied.

I was always amazed at how beautiful my daughter had become. She was tall and graceful, yet strong and intelligent. She had long, auburn hair that hung in long, flowy curls around her face and down her back. She had inherited her father's eyes and his facial features but she smiled so much like me so they say, her eyes lighting up an entire room with just one grin, that is if she would actually smile. She was so despondent now adays, always quiet and reserved. She was starting to worry me, her silence was taking over her entire being, transforming her into someone else. I could hardly recognize her anymore. I so desperately wished for my joyus, happy little girl to return, but I could only dream. There was no time left for me to fix anything now.

I looked up at her and saw she was wearing her basic dress, a plain purple gown with long sleeves and a high neck line. It was very depressing. She used to wear such pretty, exquisite gowns. Her dresses used to be the talk of the ball and now she wore the same thing every day. I guess I wasn't the only one affected by her father's behavior. I myself had taken to wearing the same things day after day. When there's no one to dress up for, what's the purpose?

I was snapped out of my thoughts by my daughter's sudden words, reminding me that I wasn't alone.

"Mother, you shouldn't be out here. It isn't good for your health." she told me, almost as if she was instructing me to go inside.

"Nothing is good for my health anymore and nothing I do can change that."

"That's not true. Your bed is perfectly safe. Besides, you need to get your rest anyway."

"Rest won't help me now. Nothing can help me now."

"Please, don't say that mother."

"Oh, Lilian. The truth is often the one thing that no one wants to hear but it is the one thing we must learn to except." I said. "I have accepted my fate and now you must do so as well."

"I can't." Lilian said into the distance. "I refuse to."

"You can't keep me in a sick bed forever, dragging out my pain and suffering." I exclaimed softly.

"But it will keep you alive!" she yelled back.

"In body, but every day my mind will slip further and further away until you are left with nothing but a hollow shell of a person. Is that the way you want to remember your mother? As an empty shell in hospital bed?" I asked pointedly.

To this she had no response. I shook my head away and looked back down upon the party. The music and procession of celebrators was growing louder and nearer. Pretty soon they would be at the castle doors. Pretty soon my husband would be home only to forget why he came and to leave once more.

"Father has returned from war I presume." Lilian looked out upon the party just as I had, the same look of longing and sadness upon her face.

"Yes. He has returned home as a champion once more. The woman by his side tonight must feel like the luckiest woman in the universe." I said bitterly.

"Mother?"

"Yes dear?"

"Why did father leave?" she asked quietly. "Why does he not remember?"

I took a long, deep breath and tried to clear my mind before re-telling this terrible tale again. It took me a few minutes, but I finally worked up enough strength to speak.

"Your father cannot remember us because he is sick. Very sick."

"He looks fine to me." she said confusedly.

"That's because he has contracted a sickness of the mind, a sickness only found on Earth and one for there is no cure. This sickness, that on Earth we call Alz-Hiemers, is eating away at your fathers brain, specifically his memory. At times, he will remember everything but at other times, he can't even remember his name, none the less his family." I explained. "At first, I tried to make excuses for his behaviors and I tried to forgive his misdeeds, but it all becomes too much. I find it easier to just let him be and if he remembers again, i have faith he'll find his way home."

"Does he know about it? His illness?"

"I think he knows about it, but it hardly matters. He can't do anything about it now, even if he could remember. He'll never again be the same sweet, handsome prince who swept me off my feet all those years ago, no matter how hard I wish for it."

"And does he know about your illness?"

"No. I have kept my illness...my _cancer_ to myself, my family, and my most trusted staff. It isn't something I want going around and it isn't something I want your father worrying about if he ever snaps out of things."

"Cancer?"

"Yes, it's the name of the Earthly disease I have caught. It's not incurable, but it's too late for me to start the treatments. By the time you got them, I would be long departed from this world."

"It's never too late to try mother!"

"My sweet daughter, there is a time for everything and my time is just about to end. Please, make these last few moments I have last."

"You can't leave me mother! You can't leave me all alone in this place! I don't know how to run a kingdom! I need your help!" she pleaded.

"I have faith in you Lilian. You have always been strong and steady in your choices and wise in planning and diplomacy. You have the makings of a great queen." I assured her. "Besides, you are my daughter. The people will always support you. Listen to them and they will steer you to greatness."

"You place too much faith in me mother."

"It is faith that I am assured is not misplaced."

I looked down at her once more. She had started crying and was failing miserabley at hiding it.

"Dry those tears child. Do not cry. All will be well soon."

She nodded her head and shook it firmly but slowly up and down.

"Good." I nooded. "Now let me see you smile."

She looked up and gave me, at first a tiny grin, but then it formed into a huge beam and I could swear the entire kingdom lit up. It was as if the lights had finally turned on after years and years of darkness.

"Now promise me that you will never again be swayed by tears. Don't hide your smile. It holds so much power, so much hope and the people need hope." I said firmly. "The people will need a new leader, one who is great at leading but also one who can carry such a hope. They will need you."

I reached up and took the golden crown from my head and placed it upon hers, the bejeweled base sitting perfectly in the center. It was as if the crown was made for her.

"A perfect fit." I beamed.

"I...I don't know what to say." Lilian stuttered.

"Just accept the role and say goodnight to your mother. It is time she went to rest."

"Then goodnight mother, and sweetest dreams."

Lilian led me back off the balcony and into my room. She held my hand and helped me get into bed, tucking me in like I was her child. She shooed away all the maids and servants before closing the curtains.

"Keep the windows open my dear." I asked softly.

"Of course." Lilian nodded and moved away from the windows and back towards me. She sat at the foot of my bed, holding my hands in hers.

"I love you my dear, my perfect daughter. I hope you know just how much."

"I know, and I love you too mother, more than anything."

"Thank you child, thank you."

"Will I see you in the morning?" Lilian asked sadly.

"No. But many mornings in the future, we will meet again and we will be together in that world, forever. Today just isn't that day." I smiled.

Lilian nodded. "Then I will wait for that day when we can all be together once more, a real family."

"Wait for the day, but do not long for it. I want you to have your own life. I want you to be happy and to love and to have your own wonderful family. I want you to have all the things I didn't have and more, but most of all, I want you to live. Live Lilian. You only have one life in this world, make it last."

"I will. I promise."

"Good. That's all I want for you."

"What should I tell father when he comes?"

"The truth. There is no point in hiding it now."

She looked away for a moment and then returned her focus to me. I could tell she was trying to hide more tears.

"Is that all mother?" she asked with a sad smile.

"Yes my dear, that is all." I said as I laid back in bed. "Good night."

"Good night." Lilian whispered. She got up and kissed my forehead gently before turning to leave. She quietly moved across the room with barely a sound and shut my bedroom doors softly behind her.

As I laid in bed, memories from my past came to me in a slide-show like fashion. One after another came in a chronological sequence. I saw my childhood on Earth, the day I met Stella, the day I went to Alfea, meeting the girls, getting my own Winx, starting the Winx Club, Sky asking me out, getting my enchantix, my believix, my sophix, Sky proposing, the war, the wedding, Lilian's birth, ruling Sparks, Sky's memory loss, his multiple affairs, Lilian's distance, and now it all led up to this. My life was not the fairytale I hoped it would be, but it was the one I was stuck with.

I could hear the party goers approach and enter the castle, probably looking for a good time or a party. Instead they would find an empty, silent home with the imminent approach of death upon it. This was not the time for a party and Lilian knew that.

I could hear Lilian's voice over the crowd telling everyone to go home and somewhere in the crowd, I also heard Sky's voice overpowering Lilian's. It seemed as though they were getting into an argument and I heard another voice interject in the coversation. It sounded like a woman's voice, so I decided to listen in.

I waved my hand and eavesdropped on their little chat.

_"You are not in charge of this kingdom, I am and I declare we celebrate my victory!" boomed Sky's voice over the crowds._

_"No, mother is in charge of this kingdom, and she bestowed all her power on me this night, making me the new ruler of Sparks!" Lilian argued back._

_"That's impossible! Bloom and I don't have any children! We split up months ago!" _

_"That was like 20 years ago!" Lilian shrieked "How old do you think you are?"_

Everyone stared at the king now like he was insane. Never had he truely come out as being an amnesiatic.

_"Does it really matter?" said a trashy, big boobed blonde on his arm. "This man is a hero and our beloved king! He just won a war for us and you are going to deny him a victory celebration? You, a little, unkempt rat?"_

_"I am the farthest thing from a rat you piece of commoner trash. I am Princess Lilian of Sparks, daughter of King Sky of Eraklyon and Queen Bloom of Sparks. This is my home and you shall not enter it!" She commanded. "LEAVE!"_

This made the blonde shut up and I felt a swell of pride well up in my chest. All of the party goers looked down and headed off, including the blonde.

I looked over at Sky to see his eyes glass over and then almost burst out of his skull as if he was a blind man seeing the light for the first this the miracle I had been waiting for for the past seven years?

_"Lilian?" Sky asked in a haze. He looked at her up and down as if he couldn't believe his eyes. "Lilian is that you?"_

_"Yes." she said solemnly. _

_Sky headed over to where she stood and stroked her cheek slowly, still taking everything in. "You've grown so much."_

_Lilian let a tear slip out and onto her cheek. Sky brushed it away. "I've missed you so much!" Lilian sobbed._

_"I've missed you so much too sweetheart. So very much."_

He pulled her into a tight hug and they stood there for what seemed like forever, the perfect father-daughter moment. It was what I had been waiting for all these years. They would have a million questions to ask and now had a lifetime to do so but they didn't need me for that. There was nothing else for me to know. Now I could go in peace.

I waved my hand and cleared the smoke screen away. It was time for me to go. I lay back down in my bed and closed my eyes. I dreamed of happy days from when I was younger, when everyone was carefree. I saw the lost ones, my family, Tecna and Riven and Timmy and Nabu, all sitting at a table, waiting for me. They had a picnic out, just like the old days. None of them had changed, not a bit and as I walked towards the table, I felt all my worrries disappear.

This is what heavan is supposed to be like, I thought.

I turned around one last time to hear the faint sounds of footsteps nearing my door and two familiar voices close behind. It seemed almost unfair to leave them behind now, when all was just becoming well again, but it wasn't up for me to decide. I knew they would enter my room and find me lying there, perfectly still, not breathing. They would cry and mourn my loss but they would get over me. I hope they will one day forget me so that I may be free to see them again in this life but until then, I was content at this picnic with my friends, all as it shoud be. So, I turned away, cut the cords, and joined them at the table.

Sky would join me here one day, that I was sure of. But that day just wasn't today.


End file.
